The Collected Letters, Volume 28

MY DEAR SIR,—Mrs. C. requests me to answer you for this time. The new plate is exquisitely finished, and very excellent as an arabesque;
nevertheless, we decidedly prefer the father of them all, the one first sent, it has so beautiful a monumental character;
and nothing of the caricature human face, which in these latter specimens a diseased imagination (by aid of the wiverns, etc.)
fashions for itself!— We will stand by the first one, therefore; and on the whole, if you have it at the right size, and know
a good engraver, I will request you have it engraved for me without further delay.1 We are going out of town in a week, till about New Year's Day. I hope you may have it ready about that time.

Your Ecton Tithes-Book2 is really a curious document, for which surely I am much obliged. I think it ought ultimately to go to America; and be deposited in some Congress library, University library,
or other safe and perennial place, for the great Franklin's sake!3 Did you discover there that Thos. Franklin was the blacksmith of Ecton?4 I find the Parson paying him ‘for his work,’ but never what the work was. Another question is, how have you made out the
three Parsons' names, Archdeacon P. and his two sons?5 If you could answer me those two questions within the week, I should be obliged,——and leave you and Mrs. C. to settle the
matter against our return from the country.

TC-HTW, 24 Nov. MS: for sale by Paul C. Richards, Templeton, Mass., Catalogue 169 (autumn 1982), item 145. Pbd: Davidson Cook, “Carlyle's Bookplate and its Designer,” Millgate Monthly (n.d. [1913?]): 328–29; quot: Davidson Cook, “‘A Strange Old Brown MS’ The Story of an Anglo-American Franklin Relic, with some hitherto
Unpublished Carlyle Letters,” Bookman 56 (1919):128 inc. TC headed Wake's letter to JWC, 23 Nov. (from “Engineers' Office / East and West India Docks”), “No 1 / To Mrs Carlyle / Chelsea” and added at the end: “‘H. Thos Wake’ is an ingenious young man, employed in that ‘Engineers Office’ he dates from; possessing an eager innocent enthusiasm
for all intellectual & curious objects; and manifesting, among other gifts, a very decided talent for arabesque drawing. It was on this latter ground that he introduced himself for me, not long since; presenting a specimen of a ‘Bookplate’ for
me, &c &c.— Being himself a Native of Northamptonshire, he had picked up that old Tithes-register; and found the ancestors
of Franklin in it,—which, he will now be glad to learn, is sent to America for safe keeping, precisely as it came out of his
hands. / T. Carlyle (Chelsea, London, 2 decr 1853).”

1. Wake wrote, 23 Nov., that the “monogram a capital L superimposed over a capital P which occurs on the right hand side of the miniature Portrait was used by Pierre Lombard, an engraver. I think he was also a Painter, if so, the Portrait may have been painted by him.”
Pierre Lombart or Lombard (1612–81), French engraver and designer (not painter) who also worked in England during the Commonwealth when he engraved a portrait
of Cromwell. Wake's reply to TC, 26 Nov. (headed “No 2” by TC), promised that the bookplate would be ready “by the time you name.”

2. Wake wrote: “Madam / I send herewith the two old MS. Memorandum Books.—They were commenced by John Palmer, rector of Ecton
(afterwards Archdeacon of Northampton) and continued by his Sons, John and Thomas.” TC wrote in the margin: “How is that known?
See No 2.” John Palmer (d. 1679), rector of Ecton, Northants, 1644–79, and Archdeacon, 1665–79; his sons, John (1656–88), rector of Ecton, 1680–88, and Thomas ( 1660–1715), rector of Ecton, 1689–1715. The books were a MS record of the small tithes of Ecton parish, Northamptonshire, where the family of Benjamin Franklin
(1706–90), American scientist, statesman, and philosopher, had lived before his father emigrated to Boston, 1686. Wake explained that he had marked allusions to the Franklins in pencil, and that Benjamin Franklin's autobiography “will
enable Mr Carlyle to identify the two Thomas Franklins but who Nicholas Franklin was it will perhaps be difficult to discover. I think he must have been of the same family.”

5. Wake answered, 26 Nov.: “One of the notes … mentions ‘smith's work’; he told TC where in vol. 2 was confirmation that the volumes had been kept by John Palmer and his sons John and Thomas,
adding that he could call and “explain the matter more fully” if TC wanted.